HomeMy WebLinkAbout07-15-2004 Airport Commission Meeting Minutes MINUTES
IOWA CITY AIRPORT COMMISSION
THURSDAY.JULY 15,2004—5:45 P.M.
IOWA CITY AIRPORT TERMINAL
CALL TO ORDER:
Chairperson Hartwig called the meeting to order at 5:47 p.m.
MEMBERS PRESENT:Randy Hartwig,John Krstenansky,John Staley,Daniel Clay,
Carl Williams
MEMBERS ABSENT:None
STAFF PRESENT: Sue Dulek,Ron O'Neil
OTHERS PRESENT: Mayor Lehman,Ross Wilburn,Mike O'Donnell
RECOMMENDATIONS TO COUNCIL: The Commission recommended to Council to extend
the listing agreement with Iowa Realty for six(6)months to sell or lease the property in the
Aviation Commerce Park.
The Commission recommended the Council approve a permanent easement for Dave Larsen to
develop a dry-bottom water detention area southwest of the Airport. There was a list of criteria
that Larsen would have to meet before the detention area was allowed to be constructed.
APPROVAL OF MINU'T'ES:
The minutes of the June 10,2004,Commission meeting were approved as submitted.
REVIEW OF EXPENDITURES:
O'Neil reviewed the check requests for July with the Commission.O'Neil said the sewer and
water bill had a storm water management charge on the bill. Public Works is assessing every
department based on the amount of hard surface they have. This is for maintenance of the storm
water system.
Krstenansky asked O'Neil to have a printout of the entire monthly expenditures and year-to-date
totals. O'Neil said he is not able to print the monthly reports from Finance from his computer,
but will have Accounting run a report for him for next month.
PUBLIC DISCUSSION—ITEMS NOT ON AGENDA:
Ron Duffe,from Jet Air,presented several items. He said Jet Air was going to run a CFI clinic in
August. He said the FSDO would send a notice to all pilots in Iowa. He said Jet Air is on the
cover of Aviator Hotline. This issue will be handed out at the Oshkosh Air Show.
Dean Thornberry commented that the Mayor and a couple of Council members were at the
meeting. He said that since the Council is considering putting the issue of Commission autonomy
on the ballot in November,he thought the Mayor should have an opportunity to speak to the
Commission. Hartwig told Thornberry this was an agenda item and would be discussed at that
time.
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UNFINISHED ITEMS FOR DISCUSSION/ACTION:
No items were presented.
ITEMS FOR DISCUSSION/ACTION:
a. Aviation Commerce Park—Harry Wolf,from Iowa Realty, introduced himself and said he
had a couple of items to discuss. He said there should be some action in the next week or
two that may require Commission action.
He said another issue is that the listing agreement has expired and he would like to ask for a
one-year extension. He said the only change in the agreement would be to substitute his
name for Tracy Overton's name. He said the Commission had asked for a marketing plan
and he would be ready to present that next month. He said the plan would depend somewhat
on the length of the extension.
Wolf said the only other observation he had was that several of the inquiries about the lots
wanted to know what types of architectural requirements the Commission expected. Wolf
presented a conceptual drawing to the Commission that he said he thought represented the
type of development the Commission expected. He said this might deter some buyers that
did not want to spend the money to make a more attractive building.
Wolf said there is interest in Lot#1 to construct a multi-tenant building with some aviation
use. There is interest in lots#5,#6 and#7. There are two different parties that have interest
in that area of the ACP. The Iowa City School System currently rents part of lot#5.
Wolf said he has received an updated flood plain map that reflects the areas where there was
fill. Almost the entire ACP is out of the flood plain.
Lots 15, 16,and 17 should probably be reserved for retail or some type of business
compatible with Wal-Mart and Cub Foods. The traffic light being installed at the north end
of Ruppert Road should be installed soon. This will make the development more attractive.
Williams asked if Wolf thought there would be at least one firm offer in the next 30 to 60
days? He said he would like to see a sale before a long-term commitment was made.
Krstenansky said he was disappointed that there was not a marketing strategy.
Clay said Wolf came into the project just recently and knows that he was not responsible for
the lack of sales the last year. O'Neil said the Council would make the final decision on the
realtor. The Commission will make a recommendation to the Council on whom they think
should market the property. Wolf said he would need some commitment in order to finalize
the marketing plan. He said he could put a plan together if a six-month extension was
granted.
Staley said he would make a motion for a recommendation to Council to retain Iowa Realty
for another six months to market the ACP. Clay seconded the motion and it was passed 3—
1,with Williams abstaining and Krstenansky voting no. Wolf said he would have a
marketing plan for the Commission at the next meeting.
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b. Runway 07 project—O'Neil said he has had discussions with FAA officials concerning the
project grant. Iowa City is still programmed for FY 2004 funding and they hoped to have all
2004 grants issued by August 1. O'Neil said the City would find out through a congressional
news release. He said this would allow for the design work to begin.
O'Neil said the Commission asked him to contact Public Works concerning the proposal by
developer Dave Larsen to have an easement for a dry-bottom storm water detention area
south of the RPZ for Runway 07. Most of the concerns voiced by the Commission would
have to be addressed before Public Works would give approval to the detention area. Some
of the concerns raised were the affect of the basin on the flood plain and if it would have an
affect on the recently completed Environmental Assessment.
The Commission also asked how much H.R. Green would charge to assess the impact of the
detention area on the EA. O'Neil said Green would charge on a time and material basis and
it would be a minimum of$3500. O'Neil said he would not recommend the Commission
pay that fee. It should be the responsibility of the developer to pay for that analysis. O'Neil
said for the Commission to be certain that it will not effect the runway project,the design
work should be done and approved before agreeing to recommend the easement.
O'Neil said that if the Commission wanted to send a recommendation to the Council, it
should be in writing and all of the concerns should be documented. Williams asked if Larsen
wanted to pay for an analysis from Green? Larsen said he would not be willing to pay for an
analysis.
Clay said he would recommend making some type of recommendation so the Commission
can get the issue off their agenda. He said he would recommend the easement be approved,
based on Public Works answering the questions of concern from the Commission. Staley
seconded the motion and it passed 5—0.
Clay asked if the Larsen proposal included the Airport getting some fill material for the
runway project? O'Neil said there may be some dirt available,but the Commission can not
pay to have it moved until they have received a grant or the construction will not be
reimbursed. O'Neil said he will not know until the after the grant offer is received whether
any construction is included. Larsen said he is getting close to a point of wanting to move
dirt.
c. Environmental Assessment—O'Neil said all information requested by the FAA has been
received by them. He is just waiting for the final approval of the report.
d. United hangar lease—O'Neil said there were two changes from the lease in the original
packet. One change was the pay schedule. They would like to pay$200 for the first year
and$300 for the second year as opposed to$250 per month for the two-year lease.
The second change is a clarification that if funding is received to remove the hangar as an
obstruction before the end of the lease,the Commission can terminate the lease after giving
30 days notice.Everything else in the lease is language that is in the standard Commission
lease.
Williams made a motion to accept the lease with Kim Brogan. Krstenansky seconded the
motion and at roll call vote the motion passed 5—0.
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e. Obstruction mitigation—The lighting contract was ready for Hartwig to sign. This is for
the obstruction lighting on Buildings B and C. O'Neil said there is a letter in the packet from
St.Mary's church,requesting that the Commission pay for the obstruction lighting and share
the costs for on-going maintenance. O'Neil said the grant will pay for the installation, but he
would recommend the Commission not agree to maintenance. The Commission does not
have money to pay for maintenance and it is not the Commission's obstruction. The grant
will pay for the capital investment. The Commission should document that they tried to
mitigate the obstruction and the church would not agree. There is a civil penalty for not
mitigating the obstruction if the federal government would choose to enforce it.
Staley asked if there was some other method of lighting the steeple? O'Neil said the church
had agreed to the design,they just wanted the Commission to maintain it. O'Neil said the
Commission should document their attempt to mitigate the obstruction and move on to
mitigating other obstructions.
f. Strategic planning—Clay asked if Hartwig was going to ask for public comments?
Hartwig asked if anyone would like to comment? Lehman said he was there to answer any
questions the Commission had. No one had additional comments.
Clay said he asked O'Neil to fill out the application to the University to ask for help with the
marketing for the Airport. Clay said he had a few additions and changes to the application.
It is due August 1. Clay reviewed the changes with the Commission. Krstenansky said most
of the help would be with the marketing and the Commission needs to be specific on what
they needed assistance with. The goals must be specific.
Hartwig said a letter is being drafted to send to the Council. O'Neil said he had sent a draft
to the Commission members. When the letter is approved,the Commission wanted to send a
letter directly to each Council member. O'Neil said that he incorporated all the changes he
had received from Commission members.
Clay said the Commission should decide what enclosures to send with the letter.
Krstenansky said some of the times on the schedule might not allow for enough notification
for some of the meetings. Clay said he likes the accelerated timeline O'Neil developed. It
shows the Commission is serious about having a completion date.
Hartwig asked if the Commission was ready to send the letter? Krstenansky said some of the
dates needed to be changed on the timeline. Staley said he would be gone for the focus
meeting and Commission meeting the second week of August. There was discussion about
the schedule. O'Neil said he would make the changes and send out notification for the first
focus group. O'Neil said some of the scheduling would depend on when Jeff Davidson is
available.
Clay asked if there has ever been a cost benefit analysis of each line item of the Airport's
budget? He said there were some things he didn't understand. O'Neil said the Commission
has the opportunity to discuss the budget line item by line item,but he does not think any
Commission has done a cost/benefit analysis of each line item. O'Neil said there would be a
very limited number of items that could be done with.
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Clay said as part of the Strategic Plan,each line item should be analyzed. He said this might
include restructuring the budget and not spending some money. O'Neil explained the
direction the last several Commissions have taken with regard to the budget. He said a lot of
work has gone into the budgets and they have been lean budgets. O'Neil said that he has
been given the direction that although the money is in the budget,don't spend it unless it is
absolutely necessary. He said that eventually becomes a problem when you continue to
defer maintenance.
Krstenansky said the Commission needs to establish goals and objectives for the budget and
make sure the budget is meeting them. A capital project should be scheduled when deferred
maintenance can no longer be affective. O'Neil said it would be helpful for the Commission
to have a better system for analyzing the budget. The time between when the Commission
receives the proposed budget and when it needs to be returned to Finance is relatively short.
Staley said some of this review should be done before the proposed budget arrives. Clay
said a budget process could be included as part of the Strategic Plan.
Staley said it is his understanding that the largest single item in the budget is the repayment
of the intradepartmental loans. He said this is where the Commission should put the major
emphasis. Clay said there should be a quarterly review. Williams said that increasing the
revenues is critical. Clay said he is not asking for anything from the budget except to
incorporate something in the Strategic Plan to measure goals and objectives. O'Neil said he
will have year to date information for the Commission at the next meeting and if the
Commission looks at that information,they can familiarize themselves with the line items of
the budget.
Hartwig asked Lehman if the Commission would be invited to the work session to discuss
governance? Lehman said the best time for the Commission to make comments would be at
the formal meeting on August 3. Staley said the one challenge the Commission needs to
address is how to bring down the amount of the hangar loans. O'Neil said that when ICFS
left,the drop in revenue for Building F caused the largest single budget deficit.
Harry Hinckley,a tenant at the Airport,asked what the debt was to repay the infrastructure
for the Aviation Commerce Park? Hinckley said the goal of the Commissions in the past
was also to work toward self-sufficiency. He said now the Airport has more of a debt and a
shorter runway. They are more in debt now then before and have less runway length. He
wanted to know where the idea came from to have the City involved in developing the ACP?
He said as a long-term tenant,he has not seen any progress at the Airport. He complained
about the deferred maintenance at the Airport. He said the Commission needs to improve
the overall condition of the Airport. Clay asked what Hinckley would do? Hinckley said he
would use a portion of the income on maintenance.
Lehman said the intent of the ACP was to lease the land and have a constant source of
income. The property was offered for lease and no one was interested in leasing the
property. Mascari said the Commission should sell enough property to pay for the
infrastructure and then lease the rest.
Dean Thornberry,a hangar tenant at the Airport,said the runways at Iowa City are the worst
of any airport in the area except Marion and he doesn't like it. He said he knows it is in the
Master Plan to improve the runways,but he hasn't seen anything yet.
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Clay said this is all of the information the Commission needs to incorporate in the Strategic
plan and he hopes everyone will be at the focus group meetings to let the Commission know
what changes they think would help improve the Airport.
Lehman said the Council and past Councils have supported the Airport. He said it is an asset
to Iowa City and the State. He said he doesn't think the Airport will ever be completely self-
sufficient.
The Commission continued to receive public input on the issue of governance of the Airport.
It was suggested that all those with ideas participate in the focus group session.
Thornbeny returned to the meeting and said he had been driving up and down the runways
with the Mayor. O'Neil reminded Thornberry that he was not authorized to be driving a car
on the runways and that it was not safe. Thornberry said the Mayor agreed that a lot of work
needed to be done. He said the Mayor said what needs to be done is to have the Commission
have Rick Fosse,the Public Works Director,come down and look at the surfaces. If Fosse
agrees the areas need to be repaired,Fosse can tell the Council to give the Airport the money
for the overlays. Hartwig will contact Fosse and have him look at the areas. Thornberry said
the Mayor said the Council would give the Commission money if they ask for it.
g. National Guard lease -The Guard leases approximately'/z acre of property for vehicle
storage. They would like a two-year lease. The rent has been increased 2%per year. All of
the other teens would be the same as the last lease. Williams made a motion for a resolution
to approve a lease with the National Guard. Clay seconded the motion and at roll call vote,
the motion passed 5—0.
h. Airport fly-in breakfast—O'Neil said there is a Young Eagle's event on August 28,the day
before the breakfast. SERTOMA is trying to get a one-plane act to perform on Sunday.
O'Neil said he did not think an airspace waiver could be obtained in time. Clay said they
should have an Airport clean-up day before the breakfast. O'Neil said that if the
Commission wanted to get information for the Strategic Plan,they may want to develop a
survey and have a table set up to hand out the surveys and get information for the plan.
i. FAA Master Site lease—O'Neil said the FAA has a Master lease for several small areas on
the Airport. This includes the areas for the PAPI lights,the VASI lights,the ASOS and the
maintenance building. They do not pay rent for those areas,but it is for instrumentation they
provide free of any cost to the Airport. Staley made a motion for a resolution to approve the
FAA lease. Williams seconded the motion and at roll call vote,the motion passed 5—0.
CHAIRPERSON'S REPORT:
Hartwig said he wanted to thank the Commission for all the effort and work on the Strategic Plan.
COMMISSION MEMBERS'REPORTS:
Williams said he is looking at marketing the Airport and making it known what services are at the
Airport, including the availability of the meeting room.
Staley said he would like to thank Clay and Krstenansky for the work they have done on the
Strategic Plan.
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Staley said the Commission has a lot of issues to address during the coming year.
ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT:
The 2004 FAA conference was held in Kansas City on June 29 through July 1. He attended and
spoke with several FAA officials about the grant for Runway 07 and introduced the Commission
members to the FAA officials. He said he thought it was important that the FAA knows the
Commission is interested in the Airport enough to attend the AIP conference.
O'Neil said Hartwig donated a stencil for one of the Terminal doors. O'Neil thanked him for his
donation and asked the other Commission members to look at it on the way out after the meeting.
The Iowa City School System would like to continue leasing an acre of property in the ACP on a
month to month basis.
O'Neil suggested one of the Commissions members volunteer for the Chambers leadership
program. He said he would be willing to volunteer himself if none of the Commission was
interested. It is a good way to network with the community. The tuition is$ 800. Krstenansky
said he did not think the program was worth the tuition.
Jet Air and the Des Moines FSDO are holding a"Wings"program at Iowa City on August 14 and
August 15.
There was a Gulf Stream V that was in Iowa City yesterday that brought 14 people from Seattle
to do business with P&G in Iowa City.
SET NEXT MEETING:
The next regular Airport Commission meeting is scheduled for August 12,2004,at 5:45 p.m.
ADJOURNMENT:
Th eting was adjourned at 8:53 p.m.
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Randy Hartwig,Chairperson
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